Prime Calzaghe vs Andre Ward

Well, in many of his fights Calzaghe did look flawed both in offence and defence. Ward, on the other hand, always looks like he's in control. While I do disagree with you, I can see why many would favour Ward in this match up.

I don't think the comparasion between Calzaghe and Ward needs to remain an enigma forever. If Ward steps his game up, he still have the chance to surpass Calzaghe in resume. However, Ward seems reluctant, and in his last fight my impression was that he has lost a step. If he starts to struggle with top ranked opponents, people will stop taking him seriously, and he will be seen as a fighter who put in a couple of good performences but nothing more. That's where I think we will end up.

 

Ward didnt look too in control when Darnell Boone made him forget he had two feet.

 

First time I watched the fight I thought it could have gone either way. Years passed and I finally watched it again and actually scored it. I gave Hopkins the first 3, and a late round. 8-4 for Calzaghe.

 

Joe fought and beat undefeated prime Kessler and Lacy in their primes. He also chased after Prime Collins. I don't think he would be ducking Ward.
He's got a much better resume than Ward does currently also.
I mean, could you imagine Joe Calzaghe in his prime fighting Paul Smith? He'd be a laughing stock.

 

My goodness. Insert any one of a host of names and they have the same value as a Paul Smith.
Manfredo? Ashira? There's a list of them. And they were fought in the beginning, middle and end of his title reign. We're talking a decade into it. You sure picked the wrong point to focus on.

 

Joe was 36 and B Hop was 43. Slappy Joe just wasn't that great. He was good but that's about it.

 

:good

 

Yea but to be fair the last fight Ward had at SMW was Froch. Rodriguez was overweight, Chad Dawson was weight drained and a shell of himself plus hes not a smw fighter, and Paul Smith was fought at a catch weight. My only hope is that Ward does more with his career the talent is there but I dont know if he really wants to challenge himself anymore. He could turn up having a career fighting nobodies but lets hope he doesnt.

 

But B-Hop is quite a timeless beast. Calzaghe was past his best by then, as was B-Hop, but not as far gone as Joe.

 

Joe was far gone when he fought Hopkins oh brotha

 

:rofl:rofl:rofl:happy

 

:roll:

Slappy fought top ranked opponents. Paul Smith isn't even among the top fifteen and the division today is in general weak compared to then. I agree it was strong when Slappy dropped out, with Froch, Kessler, Ward, Bute and Andre Dirrell around, but now it's really pale. The second best fighter is propably Groves who lost twice against an aging Froch.

 

Just like you wasted your time in school.

 

Aside from Lacy and Kessler who were these top ranked opponents? And who were they top ranked by? These arguments are very old. The answer is mostly they were only wbo ranked opponents. Which, if you go back and look at those rankings, will tell you all you need to know. Eubank, Mitchell, Brewer, are the only ones who come to mind as being widely considered world class quality opponents at the time, there may be 1 or 2 more.
I'm no fan of Ward, but this is his first soft touch, and after a long period of inactivity, it is understandable. Not ideal, obviously, but understandable. Calzaghe had many soft touches and was taking them deep into his wbo reign.

 

Also agreed it has the smw division has fallen back quite a bit from it's heyday of 4 or 5 years ago. I think Ward should probably move up as there isn't much for him to do other than Degale at 168. Groves could probably be a decent s**** ss Ward doesnt have the steam to KO him, but it's s tough sell until he does something again.